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Chorazin
Chorazin, also referred to as the Damned,VTDA: Road of Sin, p. 38 was a village in northern Galilee, two and a half miles from Capernaum on a hill above the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The place was one of the mightiest Baali fortresses ever known; along with Tyre and Damascus, it was regarded as a holy place for followers of the Path of Screams. History The Baali fortress at Chorazin, also described as a sepulcher or acropolis (the main part of which may have existed underground), was a stronghold of the infernalists during the Second Baali War. According to Clanbook: Baali, when Nergal returned under the guise of Shaitan, he moved the center of his activities to Chorazin, abandoning Mashkan-Shapir and leaving it to ruin. He had done so to protect the resting place of the demon Namtaru against his siblings Moloch and the Unnamed, as well as from the other clans (as it suffered constant attacks by many foes, primarily by Salubri and Assamites). According to some accounts, it was the place where Samiel met his Final Death at the conclusion of (one of) the Baali Wars; this is usually said to have happened at the conclusion of the Second Baali WarVTDA: Road of Heaven, p. 45 at the Baali acropolis in Chorazin, although Salubri oral tradition sometimes instead places his destruction at the end of the First Baali War. Salubri lore claims that the Baali were assisted in that final battle by a traitor, one of the Salubri who had thrown his lot in with the Baali; the traitor struck down Samiel with a fatal blow from behind. . The traitor's name was wiped from the clan's history, and he was given the name Ahab to mark his treachery in the wake of the Baali Wars. This traitor may have originally been one of the four Warrior Salubri who first learned of the Baali threat and was seduced by the promises of the Baali, turning on his brethren; if so, Samiel may in fact have been one of the two scouts who were slain in the first encounter with the Baali, although this would contradict nearly every other account of Samiel's death. More than half of Samiel's forces were lost with him, as was the Code of Samiel; in the aftermath of this Baali War, there may have been as few as five Warrior Salubri remaining, all of them neonates. Chorazin was also the place where the Assamite Warrior Izhim abd'Azrael was captured and where the Baali used his potent blood as a conduit to unleash the first Blood Curse upon his Assamite caste, (filling their warriors with a ravening hunger for vampiric vitae). Although Chorazin and the Baali were destroyed by Al-Ashrad and the other assembled Assamites, the curse spread quickly through the entire caste, and has persisted ever since. The dating of this account is consistent with the personal history of Qawiyya el-Ghaduba, the last childe of Samiel, but not with most non-Assamite accounts of the Baali Wars. Additionally, the Assamite accounts of this battle do not mention the presence of the Salubri, or of any other Cainites save for Assamites and the Baali. In the 11th century, the Baali Azaneal took up residence within Chorazin's subterranean levels, determined to decipher the cryptic writings on its walls . In an alliance with the Angellis Ater, he managed to open the gates to the hidden resting place, where Namtaru once slept. The power contained within the vault destroyed most of the intruders, turning them against each other in a murderous fury (except for Azaneal, who was fundamentally changed by the darkness). Azaneal declared himself Shaitan and demanded the support of the Baali line, although his call was not met with glee among many Baali elders. In the 13th century, he launched an attack against the Baali Molochim faction that sparked a century of treachery and bloodshed, as he squared off against the Molochites and Baali elders of the Levant unimpressed by his claims. The conflict ended with the Molochites' victory, the sorcerous destruction of Chorazin by earthquake, and the mystical imprisonment of Azaneal and his brood. According to stories within Alamut, the future [[Assamite antitribu|Assamite antitribu]] made a pilgrimage to Chorazin's ruins before they were freed mysteriously from the Blood Curse of the Tremere. In the modern nights, the Baali Well of Sacrifice in Chorazin's undercity is the greatest of the surviving elder Wells, save perhaps for the First Well of Ashur. With its power, Azaneal may well have attained a dark apotheosis. Version Differences Rites of the Blood has a different account of Chorazin: here, Chorazin was built by Shaitan, most powerful of the first three Baali Methuselahs, in the deep crater that held the ancient well where the Baali were created, to serve as home to the bloodline. Its true location is unknown, legend reporting it as overlooking the Sea of Galilee, close to Damascus, or near to Mecca. The site is hidden by powerful infernal spells, to which thousands of captive souls are bound. It is said two demons reside within the city, Azaneal and Namtaru – Azaneal being an ascended Baali – who have used their power to turn the sun black that their vampiric subjects can continue to worship during the day. Their visages are carved as the pillars of the city's great black gate, to welcome returning Baali and destroy non-believers who attempt to enter. Trivia is a real location in northern Galilee that was allegedly cursed by Jesus and believed by some medieval eschatologists to be the birthplace of the Antichrist. Gallery Bloodstorm of Chorazin.jpg|Bloodstorm of Chorazin VTES card. Art by Mark Poole References Category:Vampire: The Masquerade geography Category:Baali